Background to the TOEIC scandal

Following the broadcast of a BBC Panorama documentary in 2014 which exposed cheating in some TOEIC test centres, the Home Office asked ‘Education Testing Services’ (ETS) who owned the TOEIC to identify all individuals who had cheated.

ETS provided lists of individuals to the Home Office, who then proceeded to take enforcement action against those accused. It has since become clear that the Home Office did not independently verify ETS’ data before taking action against these individuals or properly weigh what the lists suggested against other evidence it already had. By the end of 2016 (when the Home Office ceased reporting these figures) it had made refusal, curtailment and removal decisions in “more than 35,870” cases (Transcript of the debate on ‘TOEIC visa cancellations’ in Parliament on 4 September 2018). A further 22,000 were told that their results were questionable.

Those who remained in the UK to try to clear their names have been subjected to the full force of the hostile environment including loss of the rights to study, work and rent accommodation.

Many have lost huge sums of money, most are suffering with depression and anxiety, and some have become estranged from family in their countries of origin.

It is a fact that many people were unjustly accused: over 4,000 people have so far been vindicated by challenging the Home Office in the tribunals and Courts. The decision-making system itself has been the subject of powerful criticisms by the National Audit Office and Parliamentary groups. We know that many more will be found innocent in the future.